REVIEW: 'Wonder Woman' film an attractive animated slugfest that deflects meaningful character depth

Primarily an action-packed visual treat, "Wonder Woman" is a coming-of-age love story based on Greek mythology that gets bogged down by wooden voice acting before it becomes anything more than an interesting premise.

Immediately impressive is an opening scene in which Queen Hippolyta (Virginia Madsen) rides her horse into battle, but gets scooped up by one of Ares' winged minions, only to be dropped to her seemingly imminent death. Instead of waiting for the fatal impact, Hippolyta lassos the legs of the demonic servant, which pulls her up the side of a wall until her crown cuts his head off.

Continuing up the side of the wall with the Amazon queen in tow, her opponent's body inevitably lands on the summit. Although impossible for the body to keep flying upward without its head, the sequence is still incredible.

Equally powerful about this sequence is that the rape of Hippolyta by Ares (Alfred Molina) is implied, her bastard son's head is sliced off and an appropriately limited amount of gore tell the graphic story about how The Amazons as a race of women pushed themselves as warriors to escape being slaves to the god of war and his adherents.

Everything that needs to be said about the origin of their way of life and the birth of Wonder Woman (Keri Russell) is done so by the stylistic wielding of bloody swords in the first 10 minutes.

Superb property damage-causing animated violence is one of several great aspects of the 75-minute-long film, most likely because the title character, who is tougher than most mortals, primarily combats supernatural forces.

Clearly more adult than past Warner Bros. Animation-made movies, "Wonder Woman" features moderate curse words, slang and naked Amazons bathing near a waterfall that serve a purpose in humorously showing the differences between the uncouth, violent world of man embodied in the Col. Steve Trevor character (Nathan Fillion) and this paradise populated by eloquent, but painstakingly warrior-like women represented by Diana. These otherwise tasteless elements are not included simply to appeal to the lowest common denominator.

Diana's interplay with Trevor reveals the not-so-feminist argument he makes that not all men want to control women as she was reared to believe, providing the story with a message that is rarely touched on in other films, let alone those that are presented in an animated format. It could have gone entirely the other way.

Ensuring that Diana is not simply portrayed as a femme fatale, she is shown confronting a Manhattan woman who unlike her uses femininity to attract a man of which the Amazon princess seems somewhat possessive, instead of choosing to rely on her own inner strength. Diana also dislikes empty flattery.

As much as the dialogue between Diana and Trevor takes a socially progressive tone, much of it comes off as though not a lot of effort was made by the voice actors to do anything in terms of improvisation to create a convincing sense of romantic chemistry between the two characters other than reading from their scripts.

Overall character dialogue comes off as too dispassionately expositional for viewers to care enough about what happens to the main characters.

Off about the story is the lack of concern Hippolyta shows when Diana, her gift from the gods, turns out to be the one who will be The Amazon's emissary to the outside world when the queen is earlier against allowing her daughter to compete in the qualifying games. Hyppolyta's battle-hardened spirit and respect for the way of the warrior might be enough to excuse her apathy in this instance, but it is very noticeable how her lack of emotion takes away from this sequence.

Even if anyone chooses to accept this explanation, the seriousness of the fatal games in which Diana engages against her mother's wishes is underscored by The Amazons suddenly showing up to aide her in the closing battle against Ares and his myrmidons. Why did they not all leave Themayscira to stop the warring god?

Therein lies the problem that makes "Wonder Woman" an aesthetically stunning cartoon too prone to engage its main characters in battle than have their voice actors explain why anyone should care that they prevail against their enemies. 

In the end, it is a battle not worth fighting or watching with too much anticipation to see what happens next.

"Wonder Woman" hits stores in DVD and Blu-Ray format on Tuesday, March 3.

Popcorn rating:

(3 1/2 out of 5 pieces)

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REVIEW: The Hulk's animated rampage against Wolverine, Thor makes for novel, stylish action DVD

Why would The Hulk ever go up against Wolverine and Thor aside from how cool it sounds for a straight-to-DVD release?

"Hulk vs. Wolverine" provides several answers, the first of which is that the big green monster (Fred Tatasciore) ends up tearing apart a small town in Canada, the adamantium-clawed mutant's (Steve Blum) stomping grounds. Wolverine's code of honor naturally dictates that the Department H agent intervene. 

Another answer initially provided in the animated short is that the ever angry creature that is The Hulk can pummel the regenerative, always grumpy Wolverine, and vice versa, long enough for the two opponents to carry a 33-minute slap fight.

But "Hulk vs. Wolverine" is not just an action movie set in the Marvel Comics universe, even though that is essentially how it defines itself.

More practical than the aforementioned reasons for its existence is that Weapon X, the secret government project responsible for Wolverine's claws, wants to add more muscle to its ranks by capturing their former mutant comrade and The Hulk. That does not sit too well with either one of these powerhouses. 

Simplistic, but effective in terms of character development, "Hulk vs. Wolverine" does not show Wolverine and The Hulk becoming the best of friends when they team up. 

Why the shaky chemistry of their team-up works is that the animated short essentially shows them attempting an impromptu escape from The Weapon X complex, with Sabretooth, Deathstrike and Deadpool standing in the way. Not to mention that The Hulk is by nature an angry powder keg that always explodes and that Wolverine does whatever he has to in order to survive in the most dire of situations.

Their respective fighting styles especially reflect their unpredictable natures. Stylish, yet somber animation illustrates how The Hulk's blows throw opponents miles into the air and Wolverine's claws slice off more than a few hands. No pretense of violence is attempted. 

Novel about "Hulk vs. Wolverine" is adult-oriented content that could never make it into a cable series featuring the two characters.

Deathstrike (Janyse Jaud) becomes aroused by strangest stimuli and Deadpool (Nolan North) utilizes the fact that he can say "ass" in a DVD release to poke fun at Omega Red.

If anything, the animated short is worth a watch simply because it is a visual treat with tight action sequences and a few pleasant surprises.

"Hulk vs. Thor" utilizes the novel idea of having Loki (Graham McTavish), the ambitious stepbrother of Thor (Matthew Wolf), take control of The Hulk after it is mystically separated from Bruce Banner (Bryce Johnson). But everything goes haywire when even the Norse gods realize that only one man can control the beast. 

Effectively conflicting about this premise is that it challenges Banner to choose between the torment of living his life keeping the beast at bay or leaving it all behind in favor of a more pleasant destiny. 

It highlights how the character is not just a hot head who desperately needs to attend anger management classes, but rather a troubled individual whose mortality is a virtue that stops a much more horrible fury from being unleashed on the world.

In contrast to "Hulk vs, Wolverine, the illuminated, visually stunning animation of this short shows Banner's irate alter ego trying to destroy the heavenly cityscape of Asgard and its people, whose wardrobe is best described as a mesh of that worn by DC Comics' Amazonians and Kryptonians.

Though The Hulk and Thor only interact when the former is beating the latter within an inch of his life and beyond, every stylish action beat is justified, making this animated short slightly better than its counterpart.

Popcorn rating:

 (4 1/2 out of 5 pieces)

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REACTION RELOAD: Top 10 ways Steven Spielberg, George Lucas 'raped' Indiana Jones in 'The Kingdom of The Crystal Skulls'

"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skulls" on DVD and Blu-ray will allow fans to process the movie for what it is now that South Park helped heal the wounds of disillusionment from its overall substandard quality.

The following are 10 specific ways in which Steven Spielberg and George Lucas in a crusade to make a quick buck raided and defiled a sacred temple of a movie franchise that should have remained locked away in the memories of 1980s moviegoers.

1. Indy should have hung up his bullwhip because the nearly 20 years that it took to bring this adventure to theaters was enough to make it seem too far apart from the rest of the movies, and the dramatic jump from Indy meeting and adventuring with his father to doing the same with his son was too much to digest. This latest adventure would have worked if it occurred after two more movies in the 1990s, but Harrison Ford understandably did not like crystal skulls.

2. Indy should not have told fans what he did the last 19 summers. He should have simply beat up or fled from the bad guys in "Kingdom of The Crystal Skulls" the way Jennifer Love Hewitt did in the two slasher movies in which she starred.

Filmmakers find creative ways to reveal background information, but Spielberg and Lucas relied solely on exposition to tell moviegoers Indy served as a pre-CIA spy after "Last Crusade," got into several tight spots with a partner named Mac, and that his father and Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott) have since died. They essentially subscribed to the anime storytelling technique of providing answers to questions no one asked and that have no place in what is meant to be realistic movie dialogue.

3. Indy should not have sought out aliens, or rather the quartz skulls of aliens. Part of what made the archaeologist's past adventures so exciting was the sparing magic realism that was never fully exploited, but provided them with that extra specialness.

Moviegoers already knew Indy would ultimately find legendary artifacts such as The Lost Ark or The Holy Grail, but what was most appealing were challenging obstacles he would have to encounter and overcome by the skin of his teeth, not the MacGuffin. Roswell Grays - if that was not enough, it turns out they were from another dimension - were simply too big of a shark for fans to jump, let alone for a relatable not-so-super protagonist. 

This is a much bigger shark that was presented than when a much younger Indy, known then as Belgium Captain Henri Defence, ended up being the one to finally stake Dracula in "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles." If Steven Spielberg and George Lucas insist on remaining loyal to the show's canon, every frivolous part of it will be mentioned and seriously judged.

4. Indy should not have sought out aliens from South America if it was impossible to film at the actual location, not in front of a green screen. 

Not only do the "Kingdom of The Kingdom Crystal Skulls" special effects make the look of the movie inconsistent with its predecessors, but they also provide the same overwhelming sense of vertigo and subsequent discomfort reminiscent of watching George Lucas' new Star Wars trilogy. How moviegoers kept from vomiting when the Temple of The Crystal Skulls was broken apart and flew around in pieces in a fast, circular motion is anyone's guess. 

Too much CGI simply makes movies look fake and cheesy. A computer-generated jungle populated by cannibal fire ants simply looks like a computer-generated jungle populated by cannibal fire ants.

5. Indy should have went after a more personal MacGuffin for once. Every artifact Indy found but ultimately did not bring home in his first three movie adventures were at the bequest of someone else such as the U.S. government, an Indian village, or his father. 

If Spielberg and Lucas wanted to do something original, they should have had Indy go after an artifact he always wanted to find such as some mystical bobble from the lost city of Atlantis, The Hand of Midas, Shangri-la, the location of a relocated Library of Alexandria, or something other than a crystal skull that looks like he could have purchased it at a Universal Citywalk store.

6. Indy should not have entered The Cold War because he is too universal of a character for which to provide an overwhelming sense of patriotism against The Soviet Union. Rest assured that Russians did not rush out to see "Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls."

Yes, he fought against the Germans in World War I and  took them on again when they became Nazis in World War II, but they were arguably the most evil force in history, so patriotism might have had little do with his military service. A lack of creativity in finding antagonists that would not upset profits outside of the Western world was apparently impossible or too hard to do. 

How Indy's patriotism further detracts from the true essence of the character is that he spent most of his life in other parts of the world to have developed a great love for America and expresses cynicism toward the government that takes away from him The Lost Ark. He is a man of the people who believes artifacts belong to their rightful owners or museums, not as a potential weaponry for the military or as personal collection pieces for the wealthy.

7. Indy should not have entered that refrigerator for obvious reasons. Maybe Spielberg and Lucas will cut the scene in several possible special edition collections. 

Steve Carell's Michael Scott from The Office would say this is a stark contrast from the protagonist in "Lost Ark," who was a normal guy that was barely able to fight off Nazis, but who in "Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls" could bullwhip away an assault rifle, survive a jet engine-powered ride through the desert and several waterfall drops, not to mention surviving a nuclear blast. Talk about an active senior citizen.

8. Indy should not have gotten hitched because his nuptials detract from the bull whipping, thrill-seeking macho essence of the character. 

"Kingdom of The Crystal Skulls" robbed male fans of the fun prospect that Indy might one day include them in one of his adventures and robbed female fans of the dream that they might ground him in an adventure known as Holy Matrimony. Indy's son, Mutt Williams (Shia LeBeouf) was already born out of wedlock, which fits into the playboy aspect of the character's personality, so the marriage was simply unnecessary. 

Him marrying Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) seems like nothing more than an explanation as to how he fathered the children mentioned in "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles."

9. Indy should have let his bullwhip do the talking, not George Lucas. His signature choppy dialogue could be detected in the less-than-one-minute scene in which Indy rediscovers his love for and successfully woos Marion Ravenwood. 

Nowhere in this movie was there any indication through dialogue of how the character's personality has changed in the last 19 years other than that he misses his dead loved ones and hates Communists. The entire screenplay depended on nothing more than nostalgia and running gags from previous films such as Indy's fear of snakes and use of the word "Junior."

10. Indy should not have recalled his youth on ABC because a lot of people likely did not know he once met Pancho Villa in "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" and could care less whether the show's canon dictates that he eventually has to conceive children. 

Moviegoers were interested in knowing about Indy's exploits, not his entire life story, especially not his improbable encounters with almost every influential person that was alive during the early 20th century, and an infamous not-so-alive character as well.

What can be seen from another viewing of "Kingdom of The Crystal Skulls" is that it is a very late, uninspired continuation of Indiana Jones' adventures, the plot and dialogue of which portray a familiar, but contrary version of the original character, abuse the degree of creativity and reality to which fans of the franchise became accustomed, and necessitates a visual style that makes the movie appear alien from its predecessors.

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REVIEW RELOAD: Pathos, established animation style highlight 'Batman: Gotham Knight' anime

Fanboys and moviegoers who are on pins and needles waiting for the release of "The Dark Knight" in movie theaters can get a 75-minute anime fix of what is to come on July 18 with the new "Batman: Gotham Knight" DVD.

The DVD consists of six action-packed, interconnected stories set after the events of 2005's "Batman Begins" that provide a brutally honest look at the emotional stability of Bruce Wayne, use established story-telling techniques to show how different people see their city's protector, and showcase fight sequences with some of The Batman's most infamous adversaries and formidable monsters.

Brian Azzarello's "Working Through the Pain"

The Batman (Kevin Conroy) lies wounded on a pile of garbage in a sewer waiting for his butler Alfred (David McCallum) to come to his aid. When the vigilante finds discarded guns in the trash pile, he remembers the day when his parents were gunned down in front of him. Young Bruce Wayne knew he had to conquer and control the pain their deaths created in him before he sought to prevent further senseless tragedies in Gotham City as The Batman. Azzarello, who wrote the Award-winning comic book "100 Bullets,” tells the story of how he accomplished this part of his training to become a crime-fighter.

Young Bruce seeks out the help of an Indian woman named Cassandra (Parminder Nagra) who helps in training his mind to resist the physical pain that his opponents may inflict on his body. 

Though the disillusioned young billionaire succeeds in blocking out this suffering, he fails to move beyond his emotional pain. Instead of learning to control it, Bruce utilizes the trauma his parents' murders created in him to fight against something he cannot control and that may eventually destroy him: The Batman's war on crime. 

What is most notable about this short film is how Azzarello illustrates that while Bruce Wayne is noble to dedicate his body, mind and wealth to prevent any other kid in Gotham from losing parents to criminals, he is a disturbed man who cannot or will not come to terms with what happened and thus will never move beyond the hurt he felt on that one bad day. All that matters to him is his mission. This is a stark contrast to past animated accounts of his training in which teachers encouraged his drive.

Josh Olson's "Have I Got a Story for You" 

Gotham kids hanging out at a skating warehouse share their individual accounts of The Dark Knight (Conroy) fighting it out with a formidable thief (George Newbern) wearing a green suit and red goggles malapropos known as The Man in Black. They fight from a building's rooftop down to one of the city's docks. 

The kids' accounts illustrate how Gotham citizens first see The Batman as mysterious figure for justice that seems to live within the realm of the imagination or the supernatural. They are not certain.

One of the skaters describes him as man-sized bat creature flying over downtown Gotham that ultimately rips the head off his opponent in front of bystanders, though her friend interjects that The Batman does not kill the criminals he brings down. Other accounts depict him as a living shadow or an automaton, an apparent nod to Killer Croc's theory in "Batman: The Animated Series." The robot theory, again? Well, they say he could be.

Olson, who wrote the screenplay for 2005's "A History of Violence," tells a story very similar to "Legends of The Dark Knight," which is a "BTAS" episode about three Gotham kids who tell their versions of the crime fighting exploits of Batman and his sidekick Robin. In fact, the kids in the "BTAS" episode relate to one another campy and post-Apocalyptic interpretations of the characters created by comic book legends Dick Sprang and Frank Miller. 

The "BTAS" episode in question is included in the two-disc and Blue-Ray editions of "Batman: Gotham Knight." Like in "Have I Got a Story for You," one of the kids theorizes that Batman is a man-sized predator. He is "a giant pterodactyl beast with big fangs and talons, and when he sees a bad guy he swoops down from the sky and carries him off," the kid says. 

Though "Have I Got a Story for You" is similar to "Legends of The Dark Knight," it is a welcome, more action-packed homage to a definitive animated series that showed respect to the nearly 70-year-old comic book legacy of The Batman character. Besides, it is very difficult to develop a Batman story that has not already been conceived. 

The "BTAS" episode itself is an inadvertent recreation of a comic book by artist and writer Frank Robbins. How the short film works best is as an explanation as to why the masked vigilante will not be treated as an urban legend used to scare criminals straight in "The Dark Knight." People have seen The Batman, but they do not know what he is or from where he came. 

Greg Rucka's "Crossfire" 

Detective Crispus Allen (Gary Dourdan) of the Gotham City Police Department's new Major Crimes Unit feels as though all he does is play courier to The Batman, who drops off The Man in Black in the office of Lt. James Gordon (Jim Meskimen) for he and his partner to escort to Arkham Asylum for imprisonment. The detective is also soar because he does not trust a masked man who operates outside of the law.

Allen and his partner Anna Ramirez (Ana Ortiz) get caught in the crossfire of a turf war when they arrive at the asylum, all of which now encompasses the entire Narrows island. The shootout is between the Sal Maroni crime family, which is now run by Sal Maroni (Ron Paulsen), and the gang of a new rival known as The Russian (Corey Burton). The Batman ultimately saves their butts.

It is similar to the "Superman: The Animates Series" episode "Tools of the Trade" in which Lt. Dan Turpin (Joseph Bologna) of Metropolis Police Department's Special Crimes Unit feels that his job is threatened when Big Blue (Tim Daly) gets more results catching bank robbers that carry some high-tech offensive hardware.

"Looks like Superman has turned the SCU into a cleanup crew," one of the reporters on the scene says. At the end of the episode, weapons dealer Bruno Mannheim (Bruce Weitz) is about to kill Superman with a powerful blaster from Apokolips when Turpin tackles him to the ground. The two men later become trusted allies.

The theme of the short film indicates that it should have been called "Trust" instead of "Crossfire," but the latter title must have sounded more appealing. Anyways, it is a minor complaint about an appropriately violent story about how the city's altruistic cops come to rely on The Batman based on no more than an unspoken understanding of solidarity. After all, it is not who he is underneath the mask, but what he does that defines The Dark Knight."

Field Test," written by Jordan Goldberg, briefly explains the moral reason why Bruce Wayne does not utilize what could be a very useful technology developed by his company to combat criminals. 

"In Darkness Dwells" by David S. Goyer and "Deadshot" by Alan Burnett are even more action-based short films in which The Batman fights the criminal Killer Croc and the hired hit man Deadshot respectively, so fanboys should get a kick out of that. 

Goyer, who wrote the screenplay for "Batman Begins," tells a story about what happened to The Scarecrow after the movie."Batman: Gotham Knight" has many amazing visual elements that cannot be accurately described with words such as the menacing, demon-like look of The Batman when he walks through fire to rescue Allen and Ramirez in "Crossfire;" the gritty, Gothic images in the church and sewer of "In Darkness Dwells;" the refined, intense look on The Dark Knight's face before he wallops Deadshot.

While the six films tell stories indicative of certain aspects of Bruce Wayne's transformation into The Batman and of his exploits from certain perspectives, they show how much depth of character may be missing in “The Dark Knight," as the movie seems to focus mainly on him trying to decide how to defeat The Joker's destructive rampage in Gotham City.

Popcorn rating:

(4 1/2 out of 5 pieces)

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